Settle Down With Me
by crashsystem
Summary: Because Santana Lopez is ready. She knows it. She should be, right?


**Brittana Week | Day 3 - Wedding/Proposal. **

**enjoy! :)**

* * *

><p>It doesn't hit her yet.<p>

It happens for most people, but well, she's not most people. Of course those little butterflies are there but other than that, it's nothing she can't handle.

Because Santana Lopez is ready. She knows it.

She should be, right?

* * *

><p>"She needs the best Q! I don't care if I have to sell my kidney, I need that yacht!" Santana huffed angrily. Quinn sighs, racking her brain and trying to find the best way to let her dearest friend know that yachts don't exactly fall from the sky. Not exactly.<p>

"San…I'm sure she'll love anything you do for her, because it'll be from you," Quinn drops down beside Santana by the pier. The sun was almost setting, giving the edges of New York City an orange glow.

"Besides, it's not like you can make that yacht drop from the sky, like from a helicopter or something," she says, chuckling nervously when she sees a flicker of that thoughtful look in those brown, mischievous eyes. "Okay forget I said anything."

It's been this way for weeks. Santana will ask for the most expensive wine, the most extravagant restaurant, the most _anything_; Quinn will point out how ridiculous her ideas are, they'll start screaming at each other and after hours, they go back to square one. Planning the proposal. Then rinse and repeat.

Santana's just glad that she has the ring at least. That went right.

* * *

><p>"<em>Santana Lopez! <em>_**Where**__ in Broadway's world are you taking me?" Rachel shrieks along the streets of New York, passing people left and right as Santana dragged her through the crowd by her arm. She didn't even get to finish her morning ritual before Santana came banging on her door like a maniac and practically __**forced**__ her clothes on her. Rachel doesn't think that things will ever change with Santana Lopez. _

_She walks full force into Santana, halting her movements abruptly. _

"_Watch where you're going Berry," Santana huffs. _

"_What are—" She looks up and for once, Rachel Berry is speechless. Santana smirks. They were standing in front of the entrance to Tiffany's. _

_It all makes sense now and as soon as Rachel could put two and two together, she gasps, "YOU'RE PROPOSING TO BRITTANY."_

_Santana just stares at the entrance for awhile before turning to face Rachel. _

"_Look,__** Rachel**__, you know I wouldn't interrupt your precious morning ritual if it wasn't important, well, except for that one time where I needed Finn's number because I saw his twin in Central Park," she laughed. _

_Rachel rolls her eyes, "That was a clown Santana."_

_Santana's almost falls over from laughing so hard before she finally calms down and wipes a non-existent tear from the corner of her eye. _

"_Okay well, I just…I was wondering if you would… cause it's for Britt and all and I just want the best for her, so would you- would you help me pick one out?" Santana asks, eyes pleading. _

_Rachel almost lets out an __**aww**__ at Santana's unusually nervous behavior. She shakes her head and smiles, "Let's go then."_

_It's been hours. Long, exhausting,__** hours**__. Rachel knows she signed up for this but she never expected Santana to be this insecure about her choice. __**So much for catching that rerun special on Barbra tonight**__. _

"_Hmm, no it's not right," Santana dismisses the umpteenth ring shown to her that afternoon. _

"_Santana," Rachel whines, head resting on the glass encasing of the ring collection. "They're all beautiful. Trust me, Brittany would love it. It's Tiffany's!" _

"_I just need to find __**the one**__, Rachel. Maybe it's not here." _

"_Now, I'm not trying to suggest anything offensive here but if it's not at Tiffany's, it's not__** anywhere**__," Rachel insists, her arms falling to her sides. _

"_It's fine, I'll figure something out," Santana says over her shoulder as she starts walking back towards the entrance. Her eyes glance over to the set of jewelry on display by the door and she stops as her eyes land on a particular ring. One with a blue diamond placed right in the middle, surrounded with white gold engraved swirls. A grin breaks out on her face._

"_I'll take that one." She looks back and points to the desired ring. _

_Rachel's jaw almost drops to the ground and she turns angrily towards the jeweler, "You couldn't have showed her that first?"_

* * *

><p>"I just want her to have the best Q. I want to give her everything," Santana says, staring out at the beams of light reflecting in the water. "Because she's <em>my <em>everything."

Quinn looks over to Santana. _When did this Lima Heights Adjacent bitch turn into such a sap?_ She mused to herself and smiled gently. She knows exactly when, she was there after all and _goddamn I can't believe I'm saying this_. "Well… I _do_ know this one guy who's renting out his yacht for the weekend…"

They don't call her the best event organizer in NYC for nothing. It's worth seeing her best friend's eyes light up like the 4th of July and have the life nearly squeezed out of her .

"At this rate, Britt could ask for the world on a platter and she'd get it," Quinn laughs, patting Santana's back.

"I would give her that."

* * *

><p>Santana has watched plenty of romantic comedies, probably too much, and she only watches because Brittany wants to and she'll just pull out the oldest trick in the book to make sure she gets what she wants. Her pout. That jutted out bottom lip is a problem for Santana.<p>

Point is, she's watched enough to know that sappy look the main guy has when he looks at his significant other. His "soulmate". They dilate and his eyebrows slowly curve upwards, scrunching in the middle slightly as a lopsided smile paints its way on his face.

She has watched enough to know that she has that look right now.

It's there every time she just _sees_ Brittany. Her long blond locks lay in soft curls around her shoulders, slightly matted from sweat but that's because she's been dancing. Brittany's always dancing. She has that little smile too, the one where Santana knows that she's thinking their time together today will be perfect even if it's just watching the clouds move in the sky.

They're holding hands as they walk through Central Park, fingers so intertwined that no one could tell where one began and the other ended. Brittany wanted to feed the ducks today after teaching dance classes that afternoon. Julliard wasn't keen on letting Brittany off for the day but they knew she was their best teacher so why not right? Santana too, decided to just take the rest of the day off from work. _Why not right? _Tomorrow's the day. _Their _day. So today would be their lazy day together.

They finally reach the pond and Santana's too busy watching Brittany feed the ducks that she doesn't notice when Brittany tugs on her shirt insistently.

"San. San? Santana…" Brittany calls. She snaps out of her Brittany-induced daydream.

"Huh? Wh-what is it Britt-Britt?"

Brittany giggles, amused. "Look over there San," she whispers, pointing over to the bridge, where a young man stood, holding out a small box in his palm to a young woman.

Santana turns around curiously, leaning back on her arms as she took in the scene before her. Brittany leans in and whispers in her ear again, "You were totally staring by the way."

"What? No I—"

"Shh…San, watch." Santana just rolls her eyes playfully, earning a little shove from Brittany and they both watch intently for a few seconds until they see the young man getting down on one knee, taking out a ring from the small box he held. Brittany lets out a hushed gasp.

The young woman covered her mouth with both hands before nodding furiously and wraps her arms around her now fiancée, squealing happily as he twirled them around. Brittany squeals a little as well, eyes tearing up as they watched that proposal.

Santana snickers. "Proposing on a bridge? That's it?"

"Santana. Don't be mean, that was very beautiful," Brittany chastises her.

Santana falters slightly. "What? I'm just saying, that wasn't very impressive. A proposal has to be big, grand, huge!" she says as she stretches her arms wide open to emphasize what she means. "Anyone can propose on a bridge"

That's what Santana knows from watching all those romantic comedies. Anyone can propose on the Central Park bridge. Santana doesn't want to be anyone. She wants to be _someone_, for Brittany. She wants her proposal to be memorable. How else can she make that happen if not by pulling out all the stops? _Right?_

"I don't think she minds," Brittany breathes as she points once again to the young couple. They're smiling sappily at each other now, walking away hand in hand. "What matters is that they love each other."

Santana scrunches her nose. She still doesn't think the whole bridge thing is enough. Hers is going to better. She left Quinn in charge of everything so, it should be. She makes a mental note to push Quinn off a cliff if it doesn't. Brittany's laugh shakes her out of her thoughts and she turns her head to Brittany, smiling curiously, "What?"

Brittany just leans in close enough till there's close to no space in between them. "I just love you," she breathes onto Santana's lips. "So much." She pulls away before Santana can lean forward and crawls back over to pond again.

"Tease."

Brittany winks over her shoulder and Santana shakes her head, trying to hide her grin.

Love is pretty powerful she thinks, for her to be _this_ lovesick.

* * *

><p>Today was the day. Their day. Not just because Santana's planning to propose to the love of her life, her soulmate, her everything, but today's their day in more ways than one.<p>

Today's the anniversary of the day they met. Summer of middle school.

It would require a typical Sunday afternoon, a cup of coffee at Starbucks and an hour, minimum, for Santana to fully explain how they first met. Not that she minds, she'll proudly shout it out from the rooftops if she could but she doesn't want to get arrested again.

All it took was just a "forgotten" lunch, a well-placed kick to Puckerman's kneecap and a kind little Brittany. So the rest, is history. Santana's shakes her head and chuckles to herself, as she remembers that kick. _What a kick._

She's rushing back from work and she can't call Quinn in the subway so she'll just have to hope everything falls into place. She briefly palms the small box in her back pocket.

It's almost five in the afternoon, when she arrives in front of her and Brittany's studio apartment. She fumbles with keys a little before finally managing to unlock the door and steps in.

"Britt? Britt baby, go get dolled up. I wanna take you somewhere," Santana calls out. No answer. She hangs her coat and closes the door behind her. Santana narrows her eyes suspiciously, suddenly sweeping her vision over everything to make sure everything's in place. It is.

A sudden smell wafts up into the living room. _Is that chicken?_ Santana thinks as she slowly makes her way further into the their apartment and to entrance of their kitchen.

What she sees then is something she's seen countless of times. Her favorite scene to come home to. Brittany's in the middle of their kitchen, cooking and dancing to some pop song playing on her ipod at the same time. Santana leans one shoulder against the wall, just watching. It amazes her how good Brittany is at cooking now, because recipes were confusing before but now she's practically a chef.

She remembers asking Brittany that one time.

"_I thought you said recipes were confusing? This is delicious Britt," Santana says, mouth full with the food Brittany prepared for them that night. _

"_I never said I couldn't cook Santana," she narrows her eyes at Santana playfully before spinning around, heading back into the kitchen to bring out more food. _

They definitely found a way to burn all those calories that night.

Santana grins widely when she sees Brittany try to create a new dance move, popping her elbows and jerking at odd angles with a spatula in hand. She has that look on her face again. She'll never get tired of this. Watching Brittany, wanting Brittany, _her life with Brittany_. It's not entirely domestic, it just doesn't feel like it. It feels like _them_. Santana has so much love for this one woman right in front of her. So much love that it feels like nothing else exists.

She blames it on love, but before she knows it, she's taking slow steps forward towards her dancing beauty. Santana finally reaches her and puts out her arms to stop Brittany gently by the shoulders. Brittany's surprised but not shocked. She smiles, exposing her teeth.

"San you're back already! I hope you don't mind staying in tonight. I mean, I'm cooking and it's-it's our anniversary so…um…and I'm trying to cook shrimp-" she lets out nervously before gasping.

Santana drops down on one knee, pulling out the small velvet box and opens it, exposing the ring inside.

Brittany's eyes widen as she covers her open mouth with her hands.

"Britt…baby, you are everything to me, do you know that? I'll keep telling you that every single day because I never want to live my life without you. I don't know why it's taken me this long to do this, I should've gotten down on one knee the second you said you're mine but I just wanted this to be perfect, I want to give you everything, I wanted to give you this huge proposal cause you deserve that and more-" Santana takes a steadying breath and looks deeply into the only eyes she wants to sleep and wake up to for the rest of her life.

Brittany's already crying openly by now. She slowly drops to her knees in front of Santana.

Santana smiles gently and lets her eyes flicker between pools of blue and takes her free hand, wiping the tears falling down Brittany's cheeks. "I love you. I love you so much that sometimes I just forget my own name. I know we're practically doing it anyway but…settle down with me Brittany. Settle down with me. Forever. My love, my everything belongs to you. So, will you marry me Brittany Susan Pierce?"

Brittany sniffles a little before answering. "You're proposing to me on our kitchen floor?" she asks amusedly.

Santana's nervous again now. "uh…love's all that matters right?" She grins crookedly. Brittany throws her arms around Santana's neck and captures full lips between her own, kissing her languidly before pulling away and whispering, "I'll marry you Santana Lopez. Today, everyday, whenever, wherever. I just love you."

They're both smiling and giggling at each other on their kitchen floor and it would seem like the weirdest proposal ever but it's not. It's perfect.

_Well, at least not anyone proposes to the love of their life on their kitchen floor_, Santana thinks.

"Baby, I think your shrimps are burnt."

* * *

><p><strong>all mistakes are mine. <strong>


End file.
